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My First Comic Strip – Gralen And Jeddy

The first comic strip I ever attempted was about a boy with glasses named Jeddy, and his dinosaur buddy named Gralen(hmmm, I wore glasses back then – I wonder who the boy was based on?!). It was also the comic strip I drew the most.

I don’t think this one is the first ever Gralen and Jeddy cartoon, but since I tended to have this thing against putting dates on my drawings, writings, etc. We’ll never know.

In case you are wondering, I came up with the name “Gralen” from Roddy McDowall’s character “Galen” from the “Planet Of The Apes” tv series. I loved all the “Apes” films and the consequent tv series, and, though I never knew a talking ape, I thought Roddy McDowall made the best talking ape around!I don’t really know how I came up with the boy’s name of “Jeddy”. I think I chose it just because it “flowed” together well with Gralen’s name.

In case the words in the panels are hard to read, I will “transcribe” the dialogue. And I probably will with most of my cartoons, as they were always in perpetual “rough draft” form. I wasn’t drawing them for a paper, after all.

Starting with the first panel on the left and going across and then down, Gralen and Jeddy are driving down the road(yes, I know what you are thinking. Where would a dinosaur keep his driver’s license?), and Jeddy comments to Gralen: “It Sure is a nice day to go driving in my new car, isn’t it, Gralen?”Gralen: “Yep!” Jeddy spies a bird up ahead in the road: “Oh No!” “Gralen, kill the engine, quick!” Gralen looks perplexed at this request(Hey, he is a dinosaur, so although he can talk, and drive, he apparently hasn’t picked up on all the vernacular yet), so he pulls out his machine gun and naturally, shoots the engine.After an explosion, Jeddy, using bad language, says “Gralen, you &*#%!”To which Gralen replies, “Well, you did say to Kill the engine, so I did “kill” the engine.” Jeddy just sighs: “What?! Oh, why me?!”

And that is the end. Of that episode. But I have plenty more. You can either take that as an invitation to come back and read more “Gralen and Jeddy” cartoons(as well as my other cartoons), or you can take that as a warning. 😉 Just remember, I was just a kid in my single digits when I made started making these, so don’t be too mean in your comments. 🙂